Here's how much it'll cost the Rams to franchise tag Lamarcus Joyner or Sammy Watkins

The deadline for teams to designate their franchise players is at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday and it’s become evident that the Los Angeles Rams will be among those that exercise their right to use the tag. It’s an obvious decision with as many pending free agents as they have, most notably Sammy Watkins and Lamarcus Joyner.

Trumaine Johnson has received the tag the past two years and is expected to leave in free agency, making Watkins and Joyner the top candidates. As you may know, however, the tag varies in price depending on each player’s position.

With the NFL setting the salary cap at $177.2 million on Monday, the franchise tag values have been set. Here’s what they are for each position.

So, if the Rams want to tag Watkins, it’ll set them back about $16 million – $15.982 million, to be exact. As for Joyner, he’s a much more affordable option. Tagging him will only cost the Rams $11.287 million – so nearly $5 million less than Watkins.

Les Snead and Co. would prefer to keep both players, but with the deadline coming up so quickly, that’s difficult to get done before Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. Instead, the Rams will likely opt to tag Joyner as a fallback plan while still negotiating long-term deals with both he and Watkins.

Both Sean McVay and Snead said at the combine that Joyner is a huge priority for the Rams, so it wouldn’t be the least bit surprising to see them go that route with the tag.

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